Saturday, 28 November 2009

I started a post many days ago, and just finished it and posted it, but it posted below 2 of my most recent posts instead of here at the top. It's called OUTCASTS, if you would like to read it. Meanwhile I have ANOTHER draft that I am trying to figure out how to make it show up at the top of all these posts instead of pages down, like the other one. Does anyone know how to do that?A HELPFUL HINT: If you find my print is too small, hold down the ctrl button on your keyboard, then click the left mouse button ONCE anywhere in the post, then roll your scrolling button on your mouse (if you have one) while holding down ctrl, and the font will get bigger or smaller for you! This works on most web pages, if you have trouble with small print.Sheila

I am just so thankful to have some whiter, prettier front teeth. I wanted whiter teeth since they grew in gray. Now they became so soft from lupus and diabetes, that they would have fallen apart without replacement. I am one of the VERY rare people to get white crowns paid for by gov't. How odd that they would pay for white teeth crowns but not a pacemaker to keep my heart going. Oh well, my Heavenly Father" keeps my heart going, so He is my "pacemaker", without all the suffering involved with getting a pacemaker put into my chest.

Bless you all

Sheila

Update:

It's now the 26th, and I had a few complications, they sent me home sicker than when I went in. Now I'll have nice white teethe when hubby gets home! I sure wish I knew someone in gov't who would help me. I talked to a friend who used to be a lawyer here, and he has seen so many requests of different types go to gov't and sit on desks for up to 22 years, until the applicant called someone they knew in gov't, then it was found and taken care of in days. I'm ready to bribe someone in the area where my husband is, if i thought it would work. Its not against the law there (yet) to bribe. Might be unethical though. I need to just be patient and wait on the Lord, because He has important reasons for this delay. These delays are wearing us down. Sometimes I think there will be nothing left of my health by the time my husband gets here. I think of so many hundreds of possible reasons for the delay that I make myself sicker.

Friday, 20 November 2009

Disease is a pathological condition of an organ or system of an organism, which results from various cases, and categorized by a vast group of symptoms. Presently, the World Health Organization distinguishes 14,199* diseases worldwide. Each year, millions of individuals are diagnosed with diseases. With 1 and 4 individuals becoming affected each year, it is important to become educated and to be aware on the diseases; their symptoms; and their treatments.

Here at Disease.com, we establish an overview on several different diseases (e.g. Lyme, Heart, Crohn's, Alzheimer's, HIV/AIDS), a proven list of treatments, and a concise notice of preventions. Stop, asking questions, and start living a healthier life!"

I WAS VERY VERY SURPRISED TO SEE THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT 14,000 DISEASES. I THOUGHT THERE WERE MANY MORE, AT LEAST 50,000 TO 250,000. I GOT THAT IMPRESSION FROM THE AMOUNT OF TIME AND EFFORT IT TAKES FOR MOST CHRONICALLY ILL PEOPLE TO GET ANY DIAGNOSIS.

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

My mother and I had a very hurtful thing happen. The church that my parents helped to establish, and helped to keep going, with multiple jobs for over 50 years, soon became the church to avoid us when we couldn't get to church anymore. Probably because they don't know what to say to us or what to do for us, and I know that every household has their own set of crisises right now, so there is less time and energy to reach out to others. We have accepted this isolation from them, though we continue to get closer to God even without being able to go to church. A large percentage of people living here are people that I have known all my life, so it's not that we are strangers here.

What hurt is this: The new phone directory of the church was printed, and WE ARE NOT EVEN LISTED AS CHURCH MEMBERS!!! It's as if we have been excommunicated or something. I know we haven't, but it feels like it. I know this does not mean we are not members of the LORD'S church or family, and that He knows us more intimately than the church does, but it just hurt us to be deleted from the church we so actively served all our lives.

Christians are supposed to look out for the sick and the widowed, and just care for each other in general! It seems as if being chronically ill is a "sin" in the eyes of most average Christians. The Dalai Lama said about Christians "I like very much their Christ, but His people are so unlike Him!" That's sad if that's how the world sees us. I heard another quote that said "Christians are the only group that punish their sick before offering help." I have seen instances of this. Telling a sick person that they just don't have enough faith, they don't pray enough, they must be sinning, they must have a demon, they are just not thinking positively enough, etc. etc. and then when the sick person has explained things to each person a hundred times, THEN they MIGHT offer a minimal amount of help. I think the Lord is very sad with how "HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE" in general, are acting. Of course not every Christian fits this description, but it is rare to find very compassionate, unselfish, giving people these days.

Every support group I belong to, I hear the painful story of isolation and insults and misunderstanding from family members and friends and church members. I understand that no one can understand what another's pain feels like, but it is evil to tell people they have no pain; that they are faking or lazy; that it's not possible for them to be sick, or THAT THEY CAUSED IT THEMSELVES! That is a NEW AGE belief that is creeping into many churches. It's natural that people want to find a reason, someone or something to blame, but about blame for illness, Jesus himself taught:

John 9:1-3 " 1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that

he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works

of God should be made manifest in him.

The truth is...average people stop caring if you are not well after 2-3 weeks. When you have a surgery or a baby, or a death in the family, the questions of "How are you doing?" come at first, then a couple of dishes of food, and after that, they don't want to deal with you anymore. You should be cured of ANYTHING within 2 weeks. (In North America this seems to be the habit or culture, anyway. Maybe other countries are different.)

I know they are not all hard-hearted people. These are the last days. Everyone has multiple crisis in their home, and limited time and strength, so they are just trying to keep their head above water and keep surviving and have little time or strength to give to others. Its just a frustrating situation. There is also a scripture that says in the last days, love for each other will change, grow cold, become unnatural. Matthew 24:12&Romans 1:31 & 2 Timothy 3:1-4.

I no longer believe "what goes around comes around". I see some big hearted people give and give and give all their lives, and when they finally need help, it doesn't come. Life is not fair. "What goes around comes around" would mean there is fairness in the world. Our family gave thousands of hours to serve others during the past 50 years, and yet we can not find anyone to even help mop up when we were flooded, or help to move boxes, etc. or spend an hour or so with me occasionally to help prepare my house for my husband's homecoming, or get someone to go to the emergency room with us.

Our church has a program where 2 people are sort of "assigned" to check on you once a month and report any problems to the leadership. They say "Is there anything you need?" We always say no, because each time we have said "yes", those people stopped calling or coming over. The last one was when I was in the hospital and I just needed the lady to pick up my hospital suitcase from my mom and bring it to the hospital. It was just before Christmas, so I thought they would be a bit more in the charity mood, but I never heard from her again.

I bet the Christians outside of North America help each other like family, don't they? They check on each other to see if they are alive, don't they? Maybe the churches in advanced countries are different than in third world countries. They seem almost spiritually dead here. Very little service, few people who feel and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and those who DO feel the Holy Spirit, use it only for their own benefit, not to help others or to create the miracles that the Lord told us to do. "For you shall do greater works than you have seen me do here."John 14:12

Right now I am preparing another post about a church I am friends with, across the world, in India. THEY do the TRUE work of the Lord, with the orphans, widows, lepers, sick, poor, etc. In the "advanced" countries, you probably would almost never see the old traditional sects open their doors to people who are so poor that their children are naked, or can't afford shoes, or to homeless people with dirty clothes, or drunks or addicts or those with leprosy or AIDS. That might "defile" their nice clean church building. Churches that don't serve, are "hearers of the word, not doers", James 1:22 and the Lord says that "faith without works is dead." James 2:26

People seem to have forgotten the joy of helping others. They don't understand that helping others has a built in reward! You feel GREAT when you can help others! The majority of member of churches like these are the people who think they are going to heaven, yet the Lord will say "I am sorry, I never knew thee." Matthew 7:23

Belonging to a church is not just for our own benefit. It is to serve others, which is the Lord's main commandment. We are supposed to be like HIM, and serve others. He said:

"The first commandment is to Love God with all your heart, soul and mind,

and the second commandment is like unto it, love your neighbor as you love

yourself. UPON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAWS AND

THE PROPHETS!"Matthew 22:36-40

What is the test of a Christ-like church? A TRUE church of Christ? "By this shall men know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."John 13:35

I called the churchleadership and asked them why our names were not on the membership phone list. I was told that they decided to only put the names on there of people who regularly attended. So if the Lord were to inspire them to call someone who needed companionship, or who were too ill to go to church, or who might need some spiritual guidance, now they can't even call those people, because their names are not on the list. If a person was thinking "I want to do something for someone in the church that needs something. Let me look through that membership list"....well, those who need love and help the most from the church are not on that list, so they will not be reached through inspirations like that.

I shared these concerns with the church leaders, and they had not thought of those things, but said they would not change it or make a new list for about 2 more years. I wonder what the Savior thinks about that list of "only regular attending members"....leaving out everyone else. And how often do you have to attend to be considered "regular"? What if you missed half the meetings due to illness? Are they also left out of the circle of "regular attendees"? Its just like a stab in the spirit, but I know it is from imperfect people, it is not from my loving Savior...who is with me always. Sometimes we need an "angel with skin"....a person willing to do the Lord's work.

I am revising this a little bit. People are getting the impression that I am the one asking this question. I am not. I know how long I have to live with it, and I know the Lord's help will always be with me. I named the post that title to promote an article of the same name, to be found here:Click below: How Long Do I Have to Live With This Illness, Lord? ...In order to help others who might be having these thoughts and questions. I guess I should have put ONLY that article in a blog with that title, but decided to update people about my life at the same time. The day started out nicely, I was given the award you see in the upper right hand corner, from http://www.disease.com/ website, which if you look at it, is impressive!

I'm struggling again. I have a condition that even put my heart Dr. in the hospital, but I stay home and suffer, unable to get myself a drink of water, and very hard to even sit up or roll over. You can read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/costo-fibro . It's called costochondritis and even morphine is not taking care of the pain. I'm not patient with myself when I have to be stuck in bed. I'D RATHER BE CLEANING or walking outside or ANYTHING! I'd rather clean toilets than just lay here...but I am so VERY grateful to have the Internet here at my fingertips. Friends, knowledge, ability to teach and encourage, even when I can barely speak. I am over-thinking these delays about my husband, and every possible idea in heaven and earth goes through my mind, again and again. I wish I could sue the gov't for pain and suffering and torment. I know it will happen in the Lord's perfect time, but I am just a human, I can't see His purpose or His plan, so I wonder! I wonder if there's something I should be doing to change it all, or not. I think of:The Serenity PrayerGod grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;And the wisdom to know the difference.Yesterday a friend in India suggested that I contact some foreign consulates in Canada, from the areas that he is working in, and see if they would be willing to help us get my husband home, more than my own gov't is helping. It doesn't hurt to ask. At least it's something we can do to and not just sit, waiting. Since their consulate in his area kicked up such a complaint about losing such an honorable and good translator, and not being able to find another like him, I sometimes wonder if they are purposely waiting for Mom and I to pass away, so they won't have to let him come here. His family is not here, so he would probably stay where he is if he didn't have us. They have already waited for my father to pass away. Oh well, when I can breathe better and move better and get more active and get some fresh air, everything will seem less intense. Satan works on you when you are down. This too shall pass.Every few days lupus causes a different problem, so it never seems to end, but one quote has made me feel better about the fact that I will have pain like this maybe for 40 -50 years.

"Perseverance is not a long race: it is many short races, one after another."

~~Walter Elliot

So if I just persevere through each short-lived malady, then onto the next, eventually I will make it to the end of my race here on earth...the human race. lol. The Lord promises to help us through everything that may come into our lives.

Friday, 13 November 2009

"Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."

Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.

"Yuck" says her daughter.

"How about a couple raw eggs?"

"Gross, Mom!"

"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"

"Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart."

The trials and experiences of our lives will create a beautiful cake in eternal life.

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